Adding Apple frameworks > flutter plugins doc

src/_data/sidenav.yml

@@ -170,6 +170,8 @@
         - title: iOS
           permalink: /development/platform-integration/ios
           children:
+            - title: Leveraging Apple's system libraries
+              permalink: /development/platform-integration/ios/apple-frameworks
             - title: Adding iOS App Clip support
               permalink: /development/platform-integration/ios/ios-app-clip
             - title: C interop

src/development/platform-integration/ios/apple-frameworks.md

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+---
+title: Leveraging Apple's System APIs and Frameworks
+description: Learn about Flutter plugins that offer equivalent functionalities to Apple's frameworks
+---
+
+When you come from iOS development, you might need to find
+Flutter plugins that offer the same abilities as Apple's system
+libraries. This might include accessing device hardware or interacting
+with specific frameworks like `HealthKit` or `MapKit`.
+
+<!-- Add once SwiftUI PR is merged -->
+<!-- For an overview of how the SwiftUI framework compares to Flutter,
+see [Learning Flutter as a SwiftUI developer][].  -->
+
+### Introducing Flutter plugins
+Dart calls libraries that contain platform-specific code _plugins_.
+When developing an app with Flutter, you use _plugins_ to interact
+with system libraries.
+
+In your Dart code, you use the plugin's Dart API to call the native
+code from the system library being used. This means that you can write
+the code to call the Dart API. The API then makes it work for all
+platforms that the plugin supports.
+
+To learn more about plugins, see [Using packages][].
+Though this page links to some popular plugins,
+you can find thousands more, along with examples,
+on [pub.dev][]. The following table does not endorse any particular plugin.
+If you can't find a package that meets your need,
+you can create your own or use platform channels directly in your project.
+To learn more, see [Writing platform-specific code][].
+
+### Adding a plugin to your project
+To use an Apple framework within your native project,
+import it into your Swift or Objective-C file.
+
+To add a Flutter plugin, run `flutter pub add package_name`
+from the root of your project.
+This adds the dependency to your [`pubspec.yaml`][] file.
+After you add the dependency, add an `import` statement for the package
+in your Dart file.
+
+You might need to change app settings or initialization logic.
+If that's needed, the package's "Readme" page on [pub.dev][]
+should provide details.
+
+### Flutter Plugins and Apple Frameworks
+
+<table class="table table-striped nowrap">
+<tr>
+<th markdown="1">
+Use Case
+</th>
+<th markdown="1">
+Apple Framework or Class
+</th>
+<th markdown="1">
+Flutter Plugin
+</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Access the photo library
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+* `PhotoKit`<br>using the `Photos` and `PhotosUI ` frameworks
+* `UIImagePickerController`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`image_picker`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Access the camera
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`UIImagePickerController`<br>using the `.camera` `sourceType`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`image_picker`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Use advanced camera features
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`AVFoundation`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`camera`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Offer In-app purchases
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`StoreKit`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`in_app_purchase`][][^1]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Process payments
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`PassKit`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`pay`][][^2]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Send push notifications
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`UserNotifications`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`firebase_messaging`][][^3]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Access GPS coordinates
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`CoreLocation`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`geolocator`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Access sensor data[^4]
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`CoreMotion`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`sensors_plus`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Embed maps
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`MapKit`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`google_maps_flutter`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Make network requests
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`URLSession`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`http`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Store key-values
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+* `@AppStorage` property wrapper
+* `NSUserDefaults`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`shared_preferences`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Persist to a database
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`CoreData` or SQLite
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`sqflite`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Access health data
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`HealthKit`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`health`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Use machine learning
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`CoreML`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`google_ml_kit`][][^5]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Recognize text
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`VisionKit`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`google_ml_kit`][][^5]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Recognize speech
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`Speech`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`speech_to_text`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Use augmented reality
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`ARKit`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`ar_flutter_plugin`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Access weather data
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`WeatherKit`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`weather`][][^6]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Access and manage contacts
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`Contacts`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`contacts_service`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td markdown="1">
+Expose quick actions on the home screen
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+`UIApplicationShortcutItem`
+</td>
+<td markdown="1">
+[`quick_actions`][]
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+[^1]: Supports both Google Play Store on Android and Apple App Store on iOS.
+[^2]: Adds Google Pay payments on Android and Apple Pay payments on iOS.
+[^3]: Uses Firebase Cloud Messaging and integrates with APNs.
+[^4]: Includes sensors like accelerometer, gyroscope, etc.
+[^5]: Uses Google's ML Kit and supports various features like text recognition, face detection, image labeling, landmark recognition, and barcode scanning. You can also create a custom model with Firebase. To learn more, see [Use a custom TensorFlow Lite model with Flutter][].
+[^6]: Uses the [OpenWeatherMap API][]. Other packages exist that can pull from different weather APIs.
+
+<!-- [Learning Flutter as a SwiftUI developer]: -->
+[Using packages]: {{ site.url }}/development/packages-and-plugins/using-packages
+[pub.dev]: {{site.pub-pkg}}
+[`shared_preferences`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/shared_preferences
+[`http`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/http
+[`sensors_plus`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/sensors_plus
+[`geolocator`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/geolocator
+[`image_picker`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/image_picker
+[`pubspec.yaml`]: {{ site.url }}/development/tools/pubspec
+[`quick_actions`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/quick_actions
+[`in_app_purchase`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/in_app_purchase
+[`pay`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/pay
+[`firebase_messaging`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/firebase_messaging
+[`google_maps_flutter`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/google_maps_flutter
+[`google_ml_kit`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/google_ml_kit
+[Use a custom TensorFlow Lite model with Flutter]: https://firebase.google.com/docs/ml/flutter/use-custom-models
+[`speech_to_text`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/speech_to_text
+[`ar_flutter_plugin`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/ar_flutter_plugin
+[`weather`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/weather
+[`contacts_service`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/contacts_service
+[`health`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/health
+[OpenWeatherMap API]: https://openweathermap.org/api
+[`sqflite`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/sqflite
+[Writing platform-specific code]: {{ site.url }}/development/platform-integration/platform-channels
+[`camera`]: {{site.pub-pkg}}/camera